Embodiments of the inventive subject matter generally relate to the field of communication systems, and, more particularly, to channel loading for one-to-many communications in a network.
Communication systems (such as Ethernet-over-Coax systems) typically use separate Physical Layer Protocol Data Units (PPDUs) for downstream one-to-many communication from a master network device to multiple client network devices. Using separate PPDUs leads to increased overhead which can significantly reduce channel loading efficiency. For example, header information included in each of the PPDUs can lead to an increase in the overhead. Also, after transmitting a first PPDU, the master network device may wait for an acknowledgement for the first PPDU before transmitting a second PPDU. The gap between transmissions may also reduce the channel loading efficiency.